


star cross'd lovers

by orphan_account



Category: Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-10 18:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1163106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel of Montague and Jessica of Capulet were not supposed to fall in love. But they just went right ahead and did it anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	star cross'd lovers

**Author's Note:**

> **PLEASE READ FOR TRIGGERS:** this fic contains elements or mentions of the following things: teen drinking (at a party), teen sexual activity (nothing explicit), homophobic  & lesbophobic language and slurs, sexist language, and brief homophobic violence (nothing extreme or very graphic).  
> HOWEVER, there is a happy ending. :)
> 
> so i posted this on tumblr quite a while ago, in response to [this little post](http://xekstrin.tumblr.com/post/67080977269/lightfeathers-ph-petra-collins-is-this). i’ve since deleted the blog in question so it’s no longer on tumblr and i thought i might post it here.  
> this is based on romeo & juliet, obviously, but i’ve taken certain liberties, please don't murder me

_"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite."_  
―William Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_

  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Montague students booed loudly as the star quarterback from Capulet High danced in the endzone after his second touchdown of the game.

“I don’t even know that kid, but I hate him,” Bonita said to her best friend Rachel. Rachel didn’t respond, just stared straight ahead with her hand on her hip.

Bonita waved her pom-pom in Rachel’s face. “Hello-ooo? Anyone home?”

Rachel pushed the pom-pom away and laughed. “Sorry, I’m just a little distracted.”

“Well, don’t zone out on me just yet, chica. It’s not even halftime, and I can’t lead these cheers by myself.”

“Sure,” Rachel said, already distracted again. Bonita rolled her eyes.

Capulet scored three more times before the end of the game, and won 33-13. The students stormed the field as the final buzzer rang, cheerleaders and football players and screaming students all celebrating the victory as coaches and teachers and parents did their best to get them under control.

Bonita huffed angrily and put a hand on her hip. “They fucking butcher us every year. Come on, Rachel, let’s get out of here. I’m gonna puke if I hear another Capulet cheer.” She put a cheesy grin on her face and raised a falsetto in mocking. _“Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? Capulet! Capulet! Yay!”_ Immediately, the moody, annoyed look that usually graced her face came back, and she stalked off the field with her pom-poms in hand.

Rachel started to follow her, but got distracted by a strange feeling, like someone was watching her.

She looked around, trying to determine if someone was trying to get her attention, and was just about to try to catch up with Bonita when something ─ someone ─ caught her eye.

One of the Capulet cheerleaders was looking at her. When Rachel made eye contact, she briefly looked away in embarrassment, but then returned to watching her when she realized that Rachel wasn’t offended.

Suddenly, her phone made a noise, and she jumped. Reflexively, she broke the eye contact and grabbed it out of her jacket pocket to see who was texting her. She looked back up, but the Capulet cheerleader had turned around and was talking to one of her football players. She saw the girl laugh at something he said and put her hand on his shoulder.

Rachel’s face burned. _Right, she’s straight. Should’ve known._ She looked at her phone and saw that Marcus had texted her: “You and Bonita still want rides?”, and then: “My parents will kill me if I don’t get back soon so you better get your butts over here if you want a ride”

She typed back: “Yeah, be there in 1 sec”

Sighing, she put the phone back in her pocket and thanked God that even if Montague’s football team never seemed to beat Capulet, at least Capulet’s cheer team sucked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, Jess!”

Jessica groaned, and all her friends giggled. She knew that voice.

She turned around and saw him. “Hi Parker. What’s going on?”

The lacrosse captain grinned and moved through the hallway to get to her, his friends making kissy faces and profane gestures behind him. He charmed his way into getting Jessica’s friends to let them speak to each other alone, and put an arm around Jessica’s waist as they watched her group walking away and whispering to each other. Jessica shifted away from him.

“So, Jess. I’ll bet you know what’s coming up in a month.”

“Can’t say that I do.”

Parker’s permanent grin widened even further. “Aw, come on! You _gotta_ know it’s Homecoming.”

“Oh yeah, that,” Jessica said, trying to look as though she’d forgotten all about it. “Are you going? Who’s the lucky lady?”

“ _You_ could be,” Parker said in a voice that probably worked wonders on other girls. But not Jess.

“Oh, shoot!” she said, trying to sound disappointed. “I’m actually going to my dad’s that weekend. I’m really sorry, Parker, I can’t. I only see my dad so often, you know?”

Parker’s grin didn’t fade. “Ah, that’s alright. Maybe Lauren Frye will wanna go. I think her parents still live together.”

Jessica made an effort not to roll her eyes. “You two have fun then,” she told him, turning around to go to class. She sighed in relief when she sat down to her table in Art. _Disaster averted._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel was crouched next to Bonita’s TV while her friends made the popcorn, trying to search for a good DVD.

“Don’t your parents ever just want to watch a normal movie?” she called out, and heard Bonita laugh.

“Good luck finding something in color. Or English. Butter or no?”

“No, I’m trying this new diet.”

Marcus cut in at that moment. “Oh, shut up,” he called, poking his head around the half wall in the kitchen. “You’re a stick! Quit it with the diet-talk.”

Rachel smiled. “You’re an angel.”

“Tell me about it,” he said as he and Bonita walked into the room with two giant bowls of popcorn, one with butter and one without.

Rachel ultimately decided on the 1931 _Frankenstein_ , because they were reading the book in English and she figured she could impress her teacher by predicting what would happen next in the chapter.

The three settled down on the couch as the movie started, but Bonita never was one to beat around the bush.

“So what’s up with you lately, Rach? You keep spacing out on me during practice, and you didn’t even laugh at my drawing of Mr. Ness during History.” Marcus snickered, remembering the cartoon. Bonita continued, “Is this about Rose?”

“No!” Rachel said instinctively, but Bonita gave her a look. “Shut up,” Rachel said, her cheeks heating. “Man, special effects were _terrible_ in the ‘30s.”

“Honey, we know you like her. But there’s plenty of girls just like her. Fish in the sea, and all that,” Marcus said.

“Yeah,” Rachel muttered bitterly. “Plenty of fish in the sea. Plenty of gorgeous, smart, heterosexual fish in the sea.”

“Oh, come on,” Bonita said. Usually, her voice when saying those words sounded irritated, but when she said it to Rachel, she sounded sympathetic. Consoling. “You’ll find someone. You will! Who cares about Rose?”

“You know,” Marcus said, “before me and Elias dated, everyone thought he was straight. Even I did. Hell, even _he_ did. That kind of stuff isn’t set in stone, and you’d probably be surprised to know how many people don’t care about that stuff if they really like the person.”

Rachel knew he was trying to encourage her, but it just made her feel worse. She knew Rose didn’t like her enough to defy her very Christian parents by not caring about that stuff.

They watched the movie for a little while in silence, occasionally reaching for popcorn, when Bonita suddenly jumped off the couch.

“Hey, I have an idea!” she said, a rare smile on her face.

“What?” Rachel asked miserably.

“I heard there’s a big party at Lauren Frye’s house tonight, like her parents are out of town and she’s inviting all these people over. We can go, maybe that’ll cheer you up and get your mind off Rose. The debate team has that thingy this weekend, so she won’t be there.”

Marcus was visibly on board the moment he heard the word ‘party’. “That’s awesome! We need to go.” He paused. “Who’s Lauren Frye?”

Bonita waved a hand dismissively. “I think she goes to Capulet. But my sister knows her and she says she’s cool. Her parents are total hippies, apparently they let her smoke pot.”

Rachel laughed, then sighed. “My parents would kill me if they knew I went to a party.”

“So don’t tell them,” Bonita replied easily, as if there was no more room for discussion. “Come on, it’ll be fun. You’ve gotta go to a big party your senior year.”

There was a tense moment when Marcus and Bonita both stared at Rachel before she finally capitulated. “Alright, geez, just quit looking at me like that!”

Marcus cheered, and Bonita flicked the TV off and grabbed her car keys off the counter. “She lives like two streets from here, I think.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica came to Lauren’s party because she wanted to warn her of Parker’s intentions, but she stayed at the party because somebody brought booze and now Peter Callaghan was doing karaoke.

She was laughing at a note that was particularly off-key when she heard someone shout, “Hey, Montague! Why don’t you keep the pussy on the cheer team and keep it off the football team?” A group of Capulet football players burst out into laughter. 

Jessica turned around and saw that a group of kids she didn’t recognize were standing near the door. One of them was a big dark-haired kid who shouted back to the group, “Calling me a pussy isn’t gonna make your dick any bigger!”

He must be a Montague player, then. Jessica rolled her eyes. She hated this stupid rivalry.

The Montague player had turned back to his friends. One was a girl with long, wavy black hair and caramel skin, and the other was ─ 

_Shit._

It was the Montague cheerleader who she’d accidentally stared at after the game.

She had blonde hair that was no longer than the football player’s next to her. Freckles covered her pale nose and cheeks, and she wore very little makeup: just enough eyeliner to draw attention to her big blue eyes, just enough lip gloss to make her mouth pink and pretty. She was wearing a t-shirt for a band that Jessica had never heard of and a pair of skinny jeans that tightly hugged her slim legs.

Jessica realized she was staring, yet again. _Oh my god, she probably thinks I’m such a creep,_ she thought to herself. She decided it would probably be best to leave now. She’d talked to Lauren, she’d accomplished her goal, now it was time to leave.

She made her way through the crowd in the kitchen, trying to get to the closet where she’d left her purse. When she opened it, her cousin Toby, the Capulet star quarterback, and some girl she didn’t recognize were making out against the wall of the closet.

The girl gasped in embarrassment, and Toby demanded, “What the fuck, Jessica?”

“Sorry!” she squeaked. “I just ─ my bag is right ─ can you hand me my bag?”

Toby exhaled angrily and tossed her the bag next to his foot.

“Thanks,” she said, her night officially a massive embarrassment. She turned around to leave and bumped into someone. 

She apologized and tried to move away, but the person caught her arm and turned her back around.

Jessica froze. It was the cheerleader. She was probably going to ask what Jessica’s deal was, and if she was some kind of lesbian. Jessica prepared herself for further mortification.

“Hey,” the girl said. Surprisingly, she was smiling rather than scowling. “I remember you. You were at the game last night.”

“Yeah,” Jessica replied, shocked that the girl was friendlier than she thought. “You go to Montague, don’t you?”

The girl laughed and raised her palms in mock surrender. “I know, I know, this is Capulet territory.”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “No worries. I hate that stupid feud.” She paused a moment, then said, “I’m Jessica.”

“Rachel,” the girl replied. “Wanna go get a drink?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel could hardly believe her luck. She’d only ‘accidentally’ bumped into the girl because Bonita and Marcus had practically shoved them into each other, but she and Jessica were really hitting it off.

She was probably still straight, but Rachel was tipsy and hopeful and not thinking about Rose, so she had no intention of ending the conversation.

They were talking about concerts that they had been to, Rachel laughing and playfully shoving Jessica’s shoulder when she made fun of her bands, when the Capulet quarterback came over to them.

“Hey,” he slurred drunkenly, “Get outta here, Montague. Take that dyke shit somewhere else.”

Rachel froze. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” the guy said. “Nobody wants to see that. Jessica’s not a fucking dyke like you.”

“Toby,” Jessica warned.

“Is there a problem here?”

That was Bonita’s voice. Rachel turned and saw Bonita and Marcus standing near them. Toby turned around and looked at them.

Marcus was a gentle guy, but he could look scary if he wanted to, and he was staring Toby down with the most murderous look he could conjure up.

Toby smirked and, realizing that he was outnumbered, walked away. But before he left the room, he called out, “This isn’t over, Montague!”

Jessica touched Rachel’s arm. “I’m so sorry. Oh my god. That bastard’s my cousin. My really, really homophobic cousin.” She looked up at Marcus. “Thank you so much. I think you really freaked him out.”

Marcus smiled at her. “Anything for our little Rachel,” he said. He winked at Rachel exaggeratedly and shushed Bonita, who was swearing at Toby in Spanish under her breath, and the two walked away.

Rachel looked at Jessica, thinking to herself, This was a mistake. I should have just left her alone.

“I’m sorry if I… offended you or anything. I didn’t mean to, like…”

The Capulet cheerleader’s eyes widened. “No! No, I’m not offended. I mean, I ─ I like you.” She paused. “A lot. I’m… yeah.”

Rachel stared at her. “You mean…?”

“Yeah. Yes.”

“Oh. Okay. Me too, I mean.”

“Good.”

“Okay.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica was at Lauren’s house for a sleepover, and the girls had been screaming for five minutes straight after Jessica had told them she met a girl at a party.

“Did you get her number?” Sam shrieked.

“Is she pretty? What does she look like?” Georgie demanded to know.

Lauren, as usual, was the calming force. “Alright, guys, okay. Enough. _Shut up_.”

The noise died down, and Lauren said, “Okay, Jess. Tell us all about her.”

Jessica paused for a moment, shocked at this reception. “You guys aren’t like… I don’t know. Surprised? Grossed out?”

“Why would we be?” Georgie said, looking genuinely confused.

“Jess, we don’t care if you’re straight, or gay, or bi, or anything like that. Love is love,” Lauren stated tranquilly.

“Hippie,” Jessica teased, and her friend smiled. She took a deep breath and launched into a recitation of every detail of the night.

When she finished, Sam and Georgie were looking at her strangely.

“What? You guys didn’t change your mind about ‘love is love’, right?” she asked, laughing sharply and nervously.

“No!” Sam assured her. “No. It’s just… well.”

Georgie clarified for her: “She goes to Montague.”

Jessica stared at them. “You can’t be serious.”

“Is this about the stupid football game?” Lauren asked them, clearly just as shocked as Jessica was.

Sam and Georgie jointly began to tell their two friends about the history of the two schools, and how they had always been rivals, and how the students had always upheld the traditional rivalry. Sam insisted that there had never been a Capulet-Montague couple. Georgie reminded them that even the faculty of the two schools refused to sit next to each other when the Board of Education called a meeting.

Lauren was on Jessica’s side. “Who even cares?” She turned to her friend and started to braid her long rust-colored hair. “Well, _I’m_ happy for you, Jess. You should call her and go see a movie together, or something.”

Georgie started listing off nice girls at Capulet who Jessica would be better suited to, until Lauren threatened to kick her out if she continued.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I just wish we didn’t have to hide like this,” Rachel complained miserably.

“I know. Me too. But you know how annoying people are about the whole Montague-Capulet thing.”

Montague and Capulet were playing each other again, Montague the home team this time, and both Rachel and Jessica had called in sick to get out of cheerleading. They were sitting under the bleachers, listening to the game and both of them trying to get up the courage to kiss the other.

The crowd cheered loudly and they heard the kids’ feet stomping the bleachers above them.

“Bet it was Montague,” Rachel teased.

“No way. Capulet’s gonna kick your butts.”

They both giggled. Neither of them actually bought into the schools’ feud, but they liked to tease each other about it sometimes, as a sort of inside joke.

They talked for hours, and after the game was over and everyone had started to get in their cars and go home, they came out and went to the top of the bleachers to see the stars.

Rachel leaned her head on Jessica’s shoulder. Jessica turned and looked at her, running her fingers through her short blonde hair.

Suddenly, Rachel sat up. “Do you hear that?” she asked. She stood up and looked around for the source of the noise.

Jessica listened hard. It sounded like two people arguing.

“Come on, Rach!” she said, pulling on her cardigan. “Someone’s gonna see us.”

“Oh my god,” she said in disbelief. She looked at Jessica with fear in her eyes. “It’s Toby and Marcus.”

She pointed, and Jessica saw the two of them. They were right in each other’s faces at the other end of the football field, arguing loudly about something. 

Toby drew back and punched Marcus in the face, knocking him to the ground. Jessica and Rachel heard him shout “Faggot!” at Marcus before kicking him in the ribs.

Rachel was already halfway down the bleachers, taking them two steps at a time and racing over to the fighting boys.

“Rachel!” Jessica shouted, knowing that that wasn’t going to stop her. She started to run after her.

When they got to the boys, Marcus had gotten up and they were circling each other and cussing each other out. Blood was running down Marcus’s face from his nose.

Toby saw the girls before Marcus did, and got even angrier.

“What are you doing, Jess?” He turned to Rachel. “You fucking lesbo. Get away from her.”

The distraction gave Marcus enough time to deliver a clean right hook. Toby fell to the ground and threw his arms in front of his face, trying to ward off further blows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the Monday after the fight, the Montague principal called an assembly. The auditorium was buzzing with students whispering about the two football players who got suspended for fighting and (even more scandalous) the relationship between a Montague girl and a Capulet girl.

Rachel didn’t sit with Bonita, or anyone at all; she just wanted to be left alone for a little while. After the fight on Friday night, she had taken Marcus to the hospital and Jess had taken Toby to his house. She hadn’t called Jess since, and Jess hadn’t called her.

The principal got up to the microphone, and the conversations in the audience quieted.

“I’m sure you all already know why we’re here,” she said, her voice stern and disappointed. “On Friday Night, a football player from Montague and a football player from Capulet got into a very serious fight. One of them went to the hospital and was treated for a broken nose. Both were suspended from their respective school.

“Now, I know we all like to indulge in our little rivalry with Capulet. I know you kids tease each other, and I know that it’s usually all in good fun. But this has gotten out of hand, and neither I nor Capulet’s principal will be tolerating it any longer.” She paused, looking around the auditorium at the faces of her students. “Which is why we have both agreed to cancel our Homecoming dances, if─”

The auditorium was immediately in uproar; students were shouting “That’s not fair!” and even swearing loudly at their principal.

“Quiet!” the principal practically shouted into the microphone. She waited for the noise to die down, and then continued. “We have both agreed to cancel our Homecoming dances _if there is another incident even remotely similar to this one.”_

A sigh of relief swept through the room.

“Between now and next Saturday, if I hear even a single student say _anything_ about Capulet High School, the dance will be cancelled. This rivalry has run its course. It’s time to move on now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At lunch, Jessica was eating in the library and trying her best to avoid everyone, but eventually, someone found her.

“Hey, Jessica!”

She sighed, and turned around. It was John Frye, Lauren’s little brother. He had always been talkative whenever she went to Lauren’s house, and she liked him, but she wasn’t really in the mood to be talking to someone so perpetually happy.

“Hi, John,” she said, hoping he was just saying hello and didn’t actually want to talk.

“What’s up? I heard about the thing with Toby, is he okay? Are you okay? How’s Rachel?” he asked, sitting down in the chair next to her, clearly settling himself in for a full-blown conversation. Jessica cursed herself for not choosing to eat in the bathroom.

“I… haven’t really talked to her in a couple days.”

His eyes widened, looking surprised and confused. “What? Why not?”

“Listen, John, can we talk later? I’m not really in the mood.”

Crestfallen, John replied, “Oh. Okay. Sure.” He got up and started to walk away, but then he paused and, without turning around to look at her, said, “But I think you should talk to Rachel. My sister is friends with Rachel’s best friend’s sister, and she says that her sister ─ Rachel’s best friend ─ says that she’d never seen Rachel happier than when she was with you.”

John walked away, and Jessica put her head in her hands.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’ll get it!” Rachel’s mother called as their doorbell rang. She heard her mother open the door and have a brief conversation with the visitor; a minute later, her mother poked her head into Rachel’s room.

“Honey, you have a friend here to see you. She says it’s important.”

Her bedroom door opened wider, and Rachel saw Jessica standing next to her mother, looking shy.

Rachel cleared her throat. “Hi, Jessica.”

“Hi, Rach.” Jessica walked into her room and her mother smiled and left.

Jessica sat on Rachel’s bed next to her and didn’t speak for several moments. She was about to start, but was interrupted by Rachel throwing her arms around her and burying her face in her neck.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t call,” she said, wrapping her own arms around the other girl.

Rachel sniffled. “It’s okay. It’s just as much my fault as yours.”

“No. No way this was your fault. It was my cousin who beat up your best friend. It was my cousin who’s been acting like a complete asshole since the moment you and I laid eyes on each other.”

Rachel drew back to look Jessica in the eye, sniffling again. “Then it’s his fault. And it’s everyone’s fault for deciding Montague kids and Capulet kids couldn’t get along. That’s why we had to hide our relationship in the first place.”

“I know. I know. But we had an assembly this morning, and the principal said that if there was any more Montague-bashing, they were going to cancel Homecoming. So everyone’s probably gonna let it go. At least, I hope.”

“Yeah, we had the same assembly. I’m pretty sure nobody wants to be the one to get Homecoming cancelled for everyone,” Rachel assured her.

They stared at each other, and suddenly it was just like when they were under the bleachers trying to get up the courage to kiss each other. Suddenly, it was just like at the party, when Rachel had spotted that Capulet cheerleader from the football game and Bonita had said to her, _Come on, she’s gorgeous, just do it!_

Rachel leaned in and touched her lips to Jessica’s, and pulled back after a few seconds. Jessica paused for a moment before moving to kiss again. She put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder and tried to maneuver them to face each other full-on.

They didn’t use tongue at all. Rachel wanted to take Jess’s hand, but her palm was sweaty and she didn’t want to embarrass herself. Jessica kept forgetting to breathe and would have to break away every once in a while, panting heavily, her cheeks reddening as Rachel giggled.

On one of those occasions, Rachel took Jess’s face in her hands, pressing her fingertips against her cheekbones, her jawline, the strands of hair that were loose from her ponytail. The girls looked at each other for a long moment, and then Rachel leaned in again.

“Rachel, hon, is your friend staying for ─ oh!”

The girls disentangled themselves from each other as fast as they could, each scooting to the other end of the bed.

“Mom!”

Rachel’s mother looked at first shocked, then knowing, then… happy. She tried (and failed) to hide a huge grin, running her hand through her hair as if slightly embarrassed.

“Well,” she said, “I’d love it if you would stay for dinner with us, Jessica.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a dinner of Chinese takeout, embarrassing stories about Rachel’s childhood, and a siege of questions about Jessica’s hobbies and favorite movies and college plans, Rachel stood with Jessica by her front door to say goodbye.

“Sorry about my mom,” Rachel said. “She’s very… cheerful.”

Jess laughed. “I thought she was very cool.” Then, she looked very shy all of a sudden. “Um… it was nice. Tonight, I mean. I had fun.”

“Yeah. Me too,” Rachel said, debating whether or not to kiss her again.

Jessica solved that dilemma by leaning in and kissing Rachel on the cheek. She pulled back quickly and smiled at her before saying, “I’ll call you and we can see a movie or something.”

Rachel smiled. “That would be great.”

After Jessica left, Rachel walked into the living room, intending to scold her mother for telling her embarrassing stories. But she took one look at her and decided to leave that for another time.

Rachel’s mother could hardly contain her glee. She immediately bounced over to her daughter and put her hands on her shoulders, practically squealing as she said, “Oh, Rachel, she’s just lovely and you two obviously adore each other so much and she’s a cheerleader too and she’s so pretty and─”

“Mom! Mom!” Rachel tried to reel her mother in.

“─ _loved_ her outfit today and she has such wonderful plans for her future and she does go to Capulet but oh that’s alright and she’s…”

Rachel rolled her eyes and sat her mother down on the couch and turned on the TV. She wasn’t going to be stopping anytime soon, and Rachel had some TV shows she needed to catch up on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“But Capulet’s tickets are way cheaper. Like, ten bucks cheaper.”

“Montague gets better food. Plus, red and black school colors make for way cooler decorations.”

They were arguing over which Homecoming dance to go to. Rachel wanted to go to Montague, Jessica wanted to go to Capulet. Neither wanted to be the one kid from the rival school when they went.

Ultimately, they decided on Capulet because they were both broke.

On the night of the Homecoming dance, Rachel paced around her living room while her mother trailed behind her, trying to fuss with her daughter’s hair.

“─she drives, doesn’t she? Tell her to drive safe, I know kids get crazy on nights like this and I wouldn’t want you two to get into an accident because some drunk teenage boy rammed into you when you were leaving the parking lot and do you have your wallet? Make sure you have enough money for your ticket─”

The doorbell rang, and both of them froze. Rachel’s mother squeaked.

Rachel opened the door to a smiling Jessica.

“Oh, Jessica! You look so beautiful and doesn’t Rachel look pretty when she dresses up and─”

“Bye, mom!” Rachel said as they left her house and got into Jessica’s car.

“I can’t believe I’m going to _Capulet’s_ homecoming. I’m a traitor, Jess,” Rachel grumbled.

Jessica laughed. “You got nothing to worry about. When people see I’m taking a Montague kid, they’ll think _I’m_ the traitor here.”

They talked about their dresses and hair and makeup as they drove over to Capulet, and music and movies and books. Every once in a while, Rachel would lean over and kiss Jessica’s cheek, and Jessica would blush and stumble over her next sentence and Rachel would smile.

“We’re here,” Jess announced as they pulled into Capulet’s parking lot.

Rachel became very nervous then, and Jessica noticed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Rachel opened and closed her mouth a few times before blurting out, “It’s the night of Homecoming. They can’t cancel the dance anymore. What if people make fun of me for being from Montague when we get inside?”

Jessica looked very determined. “I’d like to see them try. If anyone says anything, I’ll make them regret it. You just wait.”

Rachel smiled, and Jessica kissed her, and they got out of the car and walked, hand in hand, into the school for the dance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the whole, aside from a few dirty looks from some particularly competitive Capulet students, Rachel and Jessica were received warmly by Jessica’s friends and had a great night.

Or, they _were_ having a great night, until Rachel looked up and saw Toby, Jess’s homophobic cousin and the Capulet star football player ─ the one person who could make the night into a complete horror story ─ making his way toward them through the crowd.

“Jess. Jess. Jess!” Rachel grew panicked, tugging Jessica by the hand trying to get them away.

“What? What’s wrong?” Jessica asked, sounding frightened. 

“He’s ─ it’s ─ Jess, Toby─”

“Hi, Jessica. Rachel.” It was too late; Toby had gotten to them and was now standing right next to Jessica, who jumped at his voice.

“Toby! Oh, um, hi, what, uh, brings you here?” Jessica asked, trying to situate herself between Rachel and her cousin.

Toby held up his hands in a signal of calmness. “It’s okay, it’s fine. I’m not here to bother you. In fact, I wanted to…” He took a deep breath, as if bracing himself, as if what he was about to say was causing him immense internal conflict. “I wanted to apologize for my behavior.” It sounded like he had rehearsed. “For everything, really. I’ve been a complete dick, and… well. You get the idea.”

Rachel almost smiled, but didn’t want to let him off the hook that easily. “So you’re apologizing for what you did to my best friend Marcus.”

He sighed. “Yes.”

“And what you said to me and Jess at Lauren Frye’s party?”

“Yeah. Yep.”

“And for being a homophobic asshole in general.”

“Yes. God, yes, I’m sorry about that.”

“And for being, uh… Montague-phobic?”

“Sure.”

Rachel smiled then, satisfied. She held out a hand to Toby and said, “Well, here’s hoping we’ll be able to actually stand the sight of each other in the future, Capulet.”

He grabbed her hand and, instead of shaking it, he used it to pull her into a crushing bear hug, lifting her a few inches off the ground and squeezing far tighter than was probably safe.

“Jess!” she squeaked, struggling to gain purchase.

He let her down, then, and laughed as she adjusted her dress and hair angrily. “See you around, then. I’ll keep the Montague-phobia on the football field.”

Rachel tried to look as intimidating as she possibly could. “Yes. You should. You should be afraid of Montague. Very afraid.”

Toby and Jessica both laughed, and he bid them farewell for the night.

Rachel turned to Jessica. “Your cousin’s still a dick.”

“Mm-hm. But I think he’s afraid of both you and Marcus now.”

“Probably.”

A slower, softer song started playing then, and the girls looked at each other. Jessica looked so beautiful to Rachel, and Rachel looked so beautiful to Jessica, and they were both so happy that they were finally able to be together.

Rachel took Jessica’s hand. “May I have this dance, Capulet?”

“You may, Montague,” Jessica replied, and turned to walk towards the dance floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


End file.
